Franken vs. Coleman to Stretch at Least Into June

By Ben Pershing
The Senate will be short one member for at least five more weeks, as the Minnesota Supreme Court announced today that oral arguments in the state's contested election won't be held until June 1.

The court is preparing to hear the latest legal salvo from former senator Norm Coleman (R), who currently trails comedian Al Franken by 312 votes and has been battling in the legal system for the inclusion in the final tally of several thousand absentee ballots he says were improperly rejected. A three-judge panel ruled against Coleman last week, and now the Republican has appealed to the state's highest court.

In its schedule announcement today, the Supreme Court also laid out a timetable for each side to file its briefs and respond to the other's, beginning next week and lasting through May 15. Franken had asked for a more expedited schedule that would have called for oral arguments in early May.

Even if the state Supreme Court rejects Coleman's appeal, the Republican could choose to appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Democrats have sought to pressure Coleman into dropping his challenge, so far without success.

Talk about classless. Coleman needs to stop this obstruction of the people's will and over it. He's lost, and his appeals are going from desperate to downright malicious.

We need to be dealing with all of these pressing issues like the economy and the environment. Instead we're stuck trying to trudge through this muck. Pathetic. We should be returning to honor old promises we made long ago. For example, global poverty, which we pledged in 2000 to help eradicate by supporting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The Borgen Project (www.borgenproject.org) has some interesting insight into addressing the issues of global poverty, something we can remedy easily and sustainably.

Instead, we've got Coleman being an idiot.

Some interesting figures to ponder:
$30 billion USD: The annual shortfall to end global poverty.
$550 billion USD: The annual US defense budget.

When Franken finally takes his seat after months of foot dragging by the Republican'ts, he will be greeted like a conquering hero. If he was seated with the rest of the freshmen Democrats, Franken would have shrunk from view like Hillary Clinton in the first years of the Bush administration. Now, he becomes larger than life and sympathetic to large numbers of Minnesotan independents. Coleman takes down the Republican party with Limbaugh, Cheney, Karl Rove, and Gingrich by being the whiniest group of sore losers since Aaron Burr. Republicans look like a circular firing squad.

Coleman is taking down himself and Governor Jim Pawlenty, too. By the time Coleman is through with all his appeals, the Republican Party will be as popular in Minnesota as it now is in the Northeast. Republicans seem to be doing everything they can to make their party extinct.